He's Baaack: A Preview of Eric Schlosser's Food, Inc. Film

Remember Eric Schlosser, the man behind Fast Food Nation? He's back with a new movie, Food, Inc., a look at how the corporations responsible for feeding
America strive to make food faster, fatter, bigger, and cheaper. For anyone who's read The Omnivore's Dilemma,Food, Inc. makes many of the same arguments. Not surprisingly, it is sad at times, uncomfortable to watch, and occasionally disgusting.

Following
the screening, Schlosser joined filmmaker Robert Kenner, chef-activist Alice Waters,
Stonyfield CEO Gary Hirshberg, and NYC Greenmarket czar Marcel Van
Ooyen for a panel discussion. Waters championed the need for healthy food in public schools (her
pet cause), but agreed with the others that the film was coming out at
a particularly positive time for local food advocates.

In fact, we seem to be in the middle of a food-media moment: Last week Lauren Salkeld blogged about Fresh, another film about the food system, while James Oliver Cury previewed End of the Line,
the overfishing documentary that has caused a bunch of
celebs (including Sienna Miller, Sting, and Charlize Theron) to
boycott Nobu.

What do you
think? Are you getting involved in the local food movement? Or writing letters to congresspeople? Should the government cut subsidies for cash crops like corn and soybean, and/or
enforce stricter regulations on meat-processing plants?

Food, Inc. opens Friday, June 12. For more information visit www.foodincmovie.com. View the trailer after the jump.

I wish it was playing in Canada. It looks to be only opening in theatres in the US

Rockie
12:04:39 PM on
06/09/09

We have a small theater here in town which shows indie films all the time. I sure hope this will be in the line-up.
While I totally embrace the fact that we should be doing all we can to get the word out about some of these practices, I think that it's going to take more than a couple of films to convince the eating public to change the way they eat and shop. A lot of folks simply do not have access to either farm-fresh or are limited as to where they can buy foodstuffs, so while a noble idea, it's going to be a tough nut to crack. As pointed out in the trailer, it' all about the money.